Paint the Town Blue
by JenzBenz
Summary: ... because red is so last year! And so is revenge. At least, the Ocean's crew's is. But there are always things to steal.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything you recognize. Except Sades? Because no one in their right minds would come up with her. Also, the title? Credited to _Turn on Billie _by The Pierces. Who are ten different sorts of awesome? Yeah. Go listen to them, like, yesterday.

**Paint the Town Blue  
**

* * *

The Monongahela/Ohio/Allegheny – _whatever _river was disgusting.

It was one of those things that were just common knowledge, no matter where you came from. Sadie Ricarddi tried to ignore a dead fish floating a little ways away. Shut her eyes and tried to pretend that it _hadn't _been glowing.

How far away was Three Mile Island?

Sadie shuddered at what she was about to do. Grit her teeth and breathed in deeply through her nose. Then she kicked violently at the water and dove, adjusting herself in the murky water and diving deeper before straightening out so she could move faster.

In front of her was the Pittsburgh skyline, lights bright and beckoning against the dark sky. Brighter still were the lights aimed at 'The' fountain, the sound of the water flowing loud but welcoming in the darkness. She could hear cars if she listened close enough, hear them all around her – to the front, the back, and above her.

She reached the Point and latched onto the cold cement, so smooth and worn that it was more like marble. It was cold and slick and her arms buckled underneath her weight several times but she eventually hauled herself onto it and rolled away from the edge before stopping and just lying there, cheek pressed to marble-cement. Watched the lights of the incline as they moved up and down the side of the mountain.

Forty-six feet. It was a long way to fall, an even longer way to be pushed. She had blacked out at the impact; gasped and inhaled more water than she had ever drank before. She didn't have any training in… anything.

Every inch of her body hurt as she finally rolled to her feet, checked her joints and blinked several times to see if her vision would get any clearer. When it didn't, she swore and rolled her shoulders back in her shirt, trying to warm herself up.

It didn't work, to say the least.

Sadie steeled her nerves and began walking down the bank of the river. Pittsburgh was a big city, even bigger when it was the middle of the night and you were getting hypothermia, but she should have been able to make it back to her apartment before too long. Sadie blinked down at her watch and found that it was more than a little after eleven, wondering only once she had let her wrist drop back to her side if the watch had stopped when she'd gotten it wet. Thought belatedly of the phone she had in the pocket of her cargo pants, further down her leg, and if it had been a waste of money.

She ducked under the overpass and out of the breeze when she reached it. It was deathly silent, every being in the city carefully hidden away in their apartments sleeping, or working late into the night in their office buildings or biding their time in any of the other locations Pittsburgh had to offer. A bird startled somewhere above her and for a minute she toyed at the idea of crossing into the city and catching a cab. Toyed with the idea but never went about it, instead simply continuing on in a –semi- straight path.

Just when it started to feel like she had been walking and on-off sprinting forever – a glance at her watch showed that it had been just under an hour – she welcomed the curved architecture of Mellon Arena into her view. That was one of the good things about Pittsburgh. There were enough notable landmarks that, even in the middle of the night, you could find your way anywhere just by looking for them.

The one problem was, though, that most of the landmarks were enormous. Like Mellon Arena – there were several sprawling parking lots in just about every direction around the building, one after another. And only once she crossed those would she be able to even fantasize about her plush crème and black bed with her eight pillows.

She weaved through the cars that were still there, wondered briefly about the sleeping cycle of hockey fans and picked up her stride to a slow jog. She was _so _close to being home. Just across two more roads and if she cut through one of the alleyways she wouldn't have to even walk to the other side of the building and could just go through one of the side doors. It might have ticked just a couple of seconds off the total time it would take her to get to her apartment, but it was small victories in the dead of night that kept her going.

"You'll see stranger things," Sadie hissed towards someone who may or may not have been that one hockey player – what the _fuck _was his name? – when he gave her a curious glance as she brushed past him. Distracted herself and almost fell over one of those cement things that people parked in front of.

When she was able to see the café, that is if she looked between the buildings at the right angle and shut one eye, she sped up to a sprint. She jumped over one of the low alley gates and tripped over an empty box lying in the middle of the path. Then, squeezing between two cars that were parked in the street and dropped down on the road. A cab slid to a stop in the middle of the street when she started across the street and she flicked the driver off when he started yelling at her in some language that she didn't understand. Her tennis shoes were filled with water and they were making the run seem much longer and making it hard for her to move her legs.

They had to be because there was no way she had let herself fall out of shape enough to keep her from getting home from _just_ The Point. She couldn't have been that tired. She had once run from the Washington Monument to her hotel in Bethesda, Maryland. The hotel that, she remembered with a grimace, was right next to a metro station. Felt a sharp stab of hatred towards the people she had been on a job with at that point in her life.

Sadie stepped into the café, the too cheery – for anytime, not just at two in the morning- bell ringing above her head and the sound remained in her ears even when it stopped. A puddle formed behind her, water absorbing quickly into The Coffee Stop's carpeting. Everyone turned to look at her and she grimaced at the sudden attention. "I'm having a really bad night." She announced loudly, not that she owed it to them to know. They stared at her for another second before mostly everyone turned back to what they were doing.

Sadie walked towards the counter, feeling smug. She had just jumped from the Fort Duquesne Bridge and hadn't broken anything, even if she felt bruised all over.

"Hey dollface," A redhead wearing a pair of blue pants and a shirt of the same color, toning down the too bright combination with a black vest that announced her name as 'Eliza' chirped at her. She walked around the counter and gave Sadie a hug. "You look horrible."

"Yeah, thanks." Sadie sighed, sliding into one of the stools at the counter and folding her arms.

Eliza clucked her tongue and grabbed the muffin platter, setting it in front of Sadie. "It's on the house."

Sadie looked at the muffins wearily. "Do we have food in the apartment?" She asked. They had been running out of snack food – or anything that took less than three minutes to make, anything more and she would have lost interest by the time it was finished – for a while and she didn't know if Eliza had been to the store or not yet.

Eliza rolled her eyes and replaced the tray further down the counter. "You really should get help for that,"

Sadie set her head on her chin and nodded. "I know," She smothered a yawn. "I'll deal with it tomorrow." She turned, walking towards the doors that would lead to a staircase that would, in turn, lead to her apartment.

"No you won't!" Eliza yelled after her.

Sadie laughed. "Good night, Liz."

* * *

Something dropped onto the back of her legs. Sadie immediately woke up, spinning under the warm, crème colored covers so that the object was resting on the front of her legs instead. It was a bundle of money, and she looked from the money to where Colton was standing in the doorway, lazily and languidly, like he actually _belonged _there.

She kept her eyes on him as she reached down to retrieve the money and only looked away to flick through it. She was halfway through when she knew and she looked back up to him. "What the fuck is this?" She tried to keep her voice level. Sadie Riccardi thrived on repressed emotion, and this was just another one to repress.

"Your cut."

Not her cut. "We settled on a hundred grand," She gripped the green money, complete with stringy rubber band, hard enough to bend it. "Not ten thousand."

Colton turned away and walked back into the main living space of the apartment, shooting back over his shoulder, "You get less when you almost mess everything up."

Sadie threw the covers back and jumped out of the bed, bounding into the kitchen after him. It was only when she had stopped by the counter that she realized her mistake. Her bed was warm, her apartment was not and the conversation they were about to have probably wouldn't be worth messing it all up. "I almost 'messed everything up' –" Actually threw up some air quotes. "- because the guys you put in charge of security detail were idiots!"

Colton laughed, tossing his head back with it. He laughed long enough to make her feel self conscious in her pajamas that consisted of a pair of Eliza's cheer shorts and a tank top that rode up on her stomach. "They did what they were told –"

Sadie grit her teeth. "You told them to-"

She wondered how people could stand being around Colton at all. Sadie was sure that she'd never be able to stand being around him or talking to him or even looking at him now that he seemed to be holding her one mess up above her head for the rest of the world to see and judge in everyone's own, special, critical way. The fact that he held so much of her future gave Colton an odd finality, one that she never thought any one person could or would possess. One she certainly didn't want involved in her life.

Sadie did not know Colton Lozak well, but what she knew she didn't like and no matter how much they worked together, it probably wouldn't change.

"I told them to look after you. It's not my fault you got mixed up and thought they were them and not the other way around." Even saying a grammatically incorrect sentence, though it made perfect sense to Sadie and probably anyone that had been on the surprisingly dark bridge with her, Colton's tone was vaguely patronizing.

"I don't need you," she reminded him. He took several steps towards her, looking to get around her, and she set her hands on her hips to make herself as wide as possible and keep him cornered.

She took it as a personal victory when his eye twitched.

But naturally, he took her bait and stayed in the stride of the conversation. "I'll make sure you never get a job again," he warned. He looked down at her, a feat that wasn't easy considering that, at five feet and eleven inches, Sadie was only three inches shorter than he was.

"Oh, I'm shaking in my boots," She pretended to shiver. It turned into a real one halfway through. Where was Eliza from and why did she insist on having the temperature turned down so far?

"Not only will you never get a job again, Sadie, you'll always be remembered as the girl that messed a job up so bad she _was _never able to get another one." Colton glared at her, absolutely threw daggers at her like some carnival sideshow attraction. Had it been someone else, she would have shrunken away.

As it was, she just shoved her shoulders back and ignored the sharp shoot of pain across her back. She probably had a bruise on her collarbone and wondered for a moment what she actually looked like hours after the incident. Should have thought of it before. "I'm shaking in my boots. Really, Colton." She assured him without a hint of sarcasm, though it was applied and she knew that he'd get her point.

He twitched again and Sadie was comforted by the gun she had on top of the refrigerator. Of course, if he had one on his person – which she knew he did – it would just be a lost cause trying to get it. He set his hand on her shoulder and pressed his thumb against her collarbone and she felt another sharp shoot of pain. Yeah, there was definitely a bruise there. The pain evened out to a soreness but Colton didn't move his hand, keeping it there and using the pain to help shove her aside.

Sadie fell a little off balance and turned with Colton but didn't make any move to stop him. Just watched him as he crossed the three feet to the door in about a stride and set his hand on the doorknob. Seemed to have an afterthought, and turned back to look at her. "What are you going to do, Sadie? Besides being able to make a bouncy ball disappear and reappear behind people's ears, the abilities on your list far from useful."

She thought mildly of reminding him of the restaurant they had gone to in Chicago when they had been there for a job. A magician had gone around to the tables and performed while the patrons had been waiting for their meals. They were probably paid by the restaurant as well as picking up tips throughout the night. She thought of it, but instead she said, "I'm tall and blonde. I don't need crime work to make money."

Colton grinned turning back to the door. "Maybe if you had blue eyes you would have gotten the hundred grand."

The walls were still ringing from the slam of the door and she glanced down and suddenly felt childishly self-conscious about her green eyes, even if they did turn an interesting color of brown just before they darkened into her pupil. Turned, took two steps and let herself fall face down onto the couch.

* * *

**Authors Note! **HI! Thanks so much for reading so far. It means a lot! Alright. So I don't know anything about Pittsburgh or the set up there. I was just thinking of some semi-large city on the East Coast and _bam_! So sorry if I got something really wrong. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy it!


	2. Chapter 2

A snatcher snatcher – a detail man in professional terms, though it was slightly different in the way that a 'snatcher snatcher' was more of someone that 'snatched' working thieves from crews – was rumored to be hanging around Pittsburgh. Sadie knew it was true and knew that the man guaranteed a job and wasn't just someone trying to start a team so that they could finally become 'proper' thieves. Sadie was, admittedly, hesitant about meeting with him so soon after having a fight with Colton. Hell, she was hesitant about taking the fight seriously, as much as Eliza would have liked her to.

About half an hour after Colton had left, Eliza had turned up to check on Sadie, finding the younger girl locked in her room, finishing off her second carton of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, empty bags of pretzels, chips and even the odd bread bag scattered on the floor around the bed. Colton didn't believe in coming through the café and instead scaled the side of the building. Eliza had apparently seen him cross in front of the windows along the front of the building and hadn't been able to get a break until then. She had stayed long enough to listen to the story and save Sadie from baking cookies that they both knew would never get further than being made into dough.

Screw salmonella, they tasted the same cooked or not.

Eliza knew Colton. Knew him and didn't like him, but she put up with him. She basically looked at him in the exact same way Sadie did, keeping him around only because he was beneficial to them. He was paying their rent, after all, having used that as a bribe to get Eliza to allow Sadie to move in with her. None of them, besides Sadie and Colton, had known each other then.

The first couple of days had been outrageously awkward.

Regardless, Sadie had known that Eliza must have been biting her lips to keep from smiling when she had heard about Colton and Sadie's long overdue falling out. But the truth was, the pair had 'falling outs' just about every other month.

When working with Colton Lozak, the worst thing you could have done was look right into his eyes. Linger too long, which was normally anything over two seconds, and you were officially being _disrespectful _or _messing something up. _Doing either one of them would get you out of whatever con he was running at that particular time, because he was always, always running one whether you were involved in it or not, and quite possibly, it would get your name slandered across the entire crime business. While others had learned to quickly avoid contact with Colton's dark hazel eyes, it had never worked out so well with Sadie. She had challenged him regularly, daring him almost daily to tell her that she was out of the con. He rose to the challenge every time, shooing her out of the safety of the warehouse or his house or one of the other guys' houses, wherever he had her put up at, for a couple of days. And then he'd come back, pretending that _her _tail was between her legs and welcome her back into his good graces.

Maybe she should have stopped giving in so easily, but she really hadn't always known what was going on during those early morning meetings. Because, for whatever goddamn reason, Colton didn't believe in meeting with people any later than eight in the morning. Sadie had a theory that it was because people were more worried about getting him out of their house and getting back to sleep then actually listening to what he had to say.

Anyway, Sadie knew conmen. She knew what sort of person snatcher snatchers were looking for, contrary to what some liked to believe, and she knew cons themselves, in their simplest forms. Sadie had no doubt that she'd have the role in whomever's plan it was before the end of the weekend.

Her lips twitched at the thought of a job that could possibly get her out of Pittsburgh and her palms itched where they were wrapped around the leather steering wheel of her car. The only real problem that remained, as far as Sadie could tell, was actually going about finding said detail man before he moved on. Sure, there were seedy places that you'd think would have tons of underhanded business going on within them, populated places that promised normality and secrecy at the same time and even just the average coffee shop that would serve just fine if gone about the correct way. But as long as it wasn't a karaoke bar, Sadie would be able to deal with whatever situation arose.

Pulled over in front of her first stop, a halfway decent looking bar-restaurant type joint that she knew from experience with Colton had housed meetings like this before, Sadie leaned over and dug through her glove box until her fingers locked around cold metal. She was fairly sure that _normal _people wouldn't be carrying weaponry in a place like this, but the weight of a gun had always been a comfort in the pocket hidden along the inside of her jacket. She finished doing up the buttons on her unassuming red trench coat and stepped out into the cold November night.

She fell into a crowd that was working its way towards the door and slid in as nonchalantly as possible. Stepped off to the side and surveyed what she could see of the dark interior under the pretense of looking for someone she had made plans to meet up with. Bad country music crackled over the faulty intercom system and Sadie tried to desperately tune it out, picking up instead on the general chatter going on around her.

The bar was, as fate would have it, in the back of the restaurant as apposed to the front as it normally was. She began to pick her way through the crowd, avoiding coming in contact with anyone that might have ruined her new jacket and kept her eyes searching the crowd noncommittally so as not to make eye contact with anyone who didn't look promising. Rethought her previous notion of no one having a gun with them in a place like this. Maybe it hadn't been the same place that Colton had taken her?

Jumped at a hand on her elbow and attempted to dislodge it. It only clenched down harder and she spun around to face whomever it had been that had dared to touch her, ripping her arm out of their grasp and ready to show them what they'd gotten themselves into. "What the hell?" She began, oh-so eloquently. Realized belatedly that she was staring at Colton Lozak. He didn't look pleased.

"I could ask you the same thing," was his own eloquent response. She'd obviously shocked him.

Sadie upped the wattage of her own smile to compensate for his steely exterior. It made him squirm and was kind of funny. It also bought her time, enough so that she could gather her thoughts. It was a comfort to know that she had managed to pick the right spot to meet whatever detail man it was. She _could _get on without him. Secondly, there was the sheer fact that he was there. Why? He was a part of more than just the team Sadie was on. It was sort of a weird set up, but he was able to run more than one heist at a time through multiple crews but none of the people that were on his teams could be parts of other heists.

"I have a meeting," She innocently offered, just a touch pointedly. His gaze immediately shifted from her face to glance over her shoulder as if looking for someone. Gripped her elbow again and dragged her behind him down a hallway that lead to back offices.

When he finally dragged her to a stop, he reminded her, without letting go of her arm, "Given the circumstances, that doesn't sound like the best idea,"

"No one _asked _for your opinion," She snapped. Dug her fingernails into the soft skin of Colton's wrist in an effort to make him let her go but knew it wasn't doing much. "I don't _need _you to watch out for me, I don't _need _you to take care of me and I really don't need-"

"I think you do," Colton hissed back and when he tightened his grip on her arm, Sadie could feel the tendons in his wrist shift. "The blonde, rich Key West girl act works for you. Now. But how much longer will that hold you over for? " _How dare he_? The weight of the gun, once comforting was now just tempting and almost irritating with the tugging. She hadn't even noticed it before, but it was suddenly all she could feel. She grit her teeth.

But she left the gun alone and instead laughed. Sadie tossed her head back with it and her cold and newly bittered laugh bounced off the walls. She fell somewhat off balance in her heels and she had to fling a hand out to touch the wall. When she brought hand away, it was sticky and she growled, "Long enough."

"Long enough to get out of Eliza's apartment?" Colton asked. His posture was all tense confidence and his gaze was just plain cockiness. She hoped that the next chair he sat in gave out or tripped and fell over in a pile of trash somewhere.

"Long enough to get a detail man," Sadie assured back unblinkingly. Narrowed her eyes. Sadie was lucky that she had gotten her words out when she did, because pure disappointment and shock rendered her speechless when Colton's words actually kicked in. She imagined him breaking into their apartment and trashing the place while Eliza worked, ruining all of Eliza's hard work because while he paid the rent, Eliza had supplied most of the furnishings herself.

He met her solid gaze. "You'll never get that far."

She narrowed her eyes even more and felt slightly like a cat. Hoped it didn't show. "Fine," Sadie spat. Turned on her heel and stalked off down the hallway, praying that the heels of her shoes, which were sharp enough to be worth something in a fight, wouldn't get stuck in any of the cracks between the tiles on the floor. They didn't, thankfully.

Felt Colton's eyes on her until the door into the alleyway had slammed shut behind her and she immediately turned and slammed the side of her clenched fist against the unrelenting brick wall. Bad idea. She cringed and stalked away, stepped into the driver's seat of her car. Reached under the passenger seat and prayed that nothing would start and that her hand wouldn't get cut off. But she found the paper she needed without any dismemberment and scanned the names and numbers until she found the one she wanted.

Praying that Colton had his phone turned off, she dug her own phone out of the shelf under her radio and began to dial.

* * *

Rusty flicked on the light and immediately knew someone was in the hotel room with him. He hoped he didn't react, though, and hung his coat up in the small closet before turning around and taking in the site of the intruder. She was tall and blonde. The type of blonde Raymond Chandler wrote about, the kind of blonde who can stop a man in his tracks at thirty paces with the flash of her ice blue eyes.

Except her eyes were green, and thusly ruined the effect.

"I figure if you wanted me dead…" He trailed off, not the way he did with Danny, but more because he wasn't entirely sure how to end the sentence himself.

"You'd be dead already." She finished for him smoothly, and yet, it wasn't natural.

She was leaning back on her heels, arms braced on the back of the couch. She smirked as she said, "Heard through the grapevine that you're looking to put a crew together."

"This is normally a 'don't call me, I'll call you' type of deal." He said, stripping off his coat and draping it over a chair.

"But you never would have called me."

Rusty considered her. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't. It's Sadie Ricarddi."

Rusty mirrored her posture, except that when he leaned back and pretended that the edge of the island wasn't digging into his back, he crossed his arms over his chest. "You're right. I didn't know you existed."

Sadie flashed a quick, luminescent grin. "So you see my dilemma."

"And I'm very sorry that I can't help you out."

"Not without talking to Ocean first, anyway," She translated-assumed from his short sentence. And things weren't so bad.

_No_, he wanted to say, _he trusts me_. "I just can't help you out," He repeated.

"Oh, fuck you." _Oh_, _fuck_. Her sunny exterior faded immediately, her green eyes narrowed and when spoke, her words were hard and cutting. She tried to wrap her mind around the fact that Colton might have gotten around to saying something to him, though Sadie had been sure that she'd passed someone with a florescent shirt like the one Ryan was wearing now – and it would have been hard to miss under the harsh streetlights – leaving before she'd seen Colton leave. She failed miserably at it. But she was Sadie Ricarddi. It entitled her to be a bitch so she fell back on it. "If I were a guy you'd snap your fingers and make it happen."

Rusty frowned. Shook his head. "Women can do the job just fine. Amateurs can't."

Sadie straightened up and stamped her foot. She was wearing a pair of black boots that came up to her knee, and given her height, the effect was enough to rattle Rusty's nerves. "What about the Caldwell boy?"

Rusty felt a sudden shock of pride shoot up his spine. Proud of Linus and the fact that his work was really getting out there and that he was getting recognition for his work. He wondered how Danny was doing getting a hold of him to help them again. Spoke a half hearted, half thought out sentence. "Wasn't the same thing."

Sadie blinked slowly, ran her tongue along the bottoms of her top teeth as she did so. Rusty wondered briefly if she had practiced that blink the mirror, because it basically screamed '_you're a fucking idiot!'. _ When she spoke, she spoke in slow words that had a strong bitter undertone, rolling her hand on her wrist loosely to help her make a point. "He was doing petty theft. That's about as amateur as they come!"

Rusty shook his head and shrugged. They could have been discussing the weather. "Linus had someone to vouch for him. He had been a talented kid who had never gotten a chance to be so talented."

"With a father like Bobby Caldwell? Hardly." She scoffed, simply because she needed more time to think about what she actually wanted to say. Colton couldn't have told everyone already. Someone she had worked with in the past still had to be willing to say something on her behalf. Panicked and fell back on bitch for the umpteenth time. "And I thought other people couldn't be trusted?" She asked, partly sarcastically, and then turned her attention to her nails. They really weren't all that great, worn down and several were uneven from when she had used them to try and loosen screws. It had been a failed attempt.

"How did you find me?" He asked after a long pause.

She paused, waiting just as long as he had. "I have many skills," She decided on finally. Her eyes flashed, challenging him to question her.

"A jack of all trades, huh?" Rusty smirked, lazy and calm. He had seemed to relax a little bit, gotten over the shock of having her in his apartment. She wasn't sure how she had expected their meeting to end up – if there would have been one at all, because despite what she might try to say, she was notorious for ending up in the wrong rooms – but she did know that she could handle discussions of her talents. Anything else just felt like failed attempt to make friends, even worse in the con business because you didn't have friends in a world of heists and bright lights.

You had acquaintances and sure, if you were lucky, pals. People that would look out for you and tell you if, say, an assassin or police officer had suddenly started asking questions about you. Cons were solitary gigs, even when you were working with other people. And getting more solitary by the moment.

Sadie tossed her hair, her sight taking a minute to catch up with where her head was newly directed from all of the alcohol she had downed earlier in the day. "You could say that," Crossed her arms and smirked back. "Except that instead of being equally as good at all of them, I'm equally as bad at all of them."

Rusty had noticed. He'd noticed the way, unlike many cons he knew, pickpockets in particular, she didn't fidget. "Better than only having the ability of one and being horrible at it, right?"

* * *

**Authors Note! **Whoot, whoot, part two! Hope you like it and thanks for reading! Oh, and by the way, everything that you're thinking right now? Probably isn't true. Peace!


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